Relic Neutrinos as a Source of Dark Energy Neal Weiner New York University IDM04 R.Fardon, D.B.Kaplan, A.E.Nelson, NW What does dark energy have to do with anything? What does dark energy have to do with us?

Theories of Dark Energy Cosmological Constant –Good: Easy to write down, easy to calculate –Bad: Hard to understand, harder to test (e.g. false vacuum) Slow-roll quintessence –Good: Easy to write down, seems to have happened once already (inflation), potentially testable (w ≠ -1) –Bad: Requires eV mass scalar field IR modification of gravity (e.g., DGP model) –Good: Profound (rethink spacetime symmetries and scales), testable (w~0.7) –Bad: w~0.7 - unless you add CC then w<-1 (Lue&Starkman), origin of hierarchy Interacting dark matter (negative pressure “stuff”) –Good: Strong evidence for dark matter, similar scales –Bad: Get acceleration messes up structure, getting structure messes up acceleration

Testing the dark sector Cosmological tests: CMB, SNIa, lensing, structure formation… Direct detection experiments (axions, WIMPs) Indirect detection experiments (positrons, gamma rays, neutrinos…) Dark Energy Dark Matter Does Dark Energy have anything to do with us?

new scales of physics   CDM 1+z Energy density at ( eV) 4 Typically new energy scales are associated with new particles (e.g., weak scale, QCD scale) Natural to consideral new particles with mass parameters near this scale Program: start with fermions (n) and scalars (A), dynamics at eV, study general properties and interactions with SM

General interactions Q: What is “leading” interaction with SM? A: Leading means: i) dimension four operator ii) large effect compared with SM Not immediately obvious significance, but already interesting

Relic neutrinos = system at finite density Simplify: assume m D < m n (A) = A, then Neutrinos “source” homogeneous A-field (m A < eV for mean-field) Total energy (neutrino+scalar) can redshift slowly just seesaw mass, but A undetermined = m dynamical Neutrino mass determined by environment

Example: Effective scalar potential Minimize wrt A Observations: Neutrino mass is not constant in time (Mass Varying Neutrinos - MaVaNs), independent of DE scenario Total energy can be much larger than neutrino energy alone SM particles integral component of dark energy

Equation of state - model independent Mean-field means any parameterization ok Energy minimization yields: E.O.S. is

More interactions with SM Planckian effects can yield NR operators with quarks m B = baryon mass, B is strength relative to gravity Tested via short distance modifications of gravity => B < 1/30

Effects on neutrino propagation Neutrino mass sensitive to weakest known physics (e.g., seesaw mechanism) Must consider new force, even if sub-Planckian Neutrino mass shifts in matter New matter effects (e.g., discrepancies between experiments in matter/air) would be strong evidence for new neutrino-scalar and baryon-scalar interactions

Summary DE discovered, now we want to study it Important to ask how SM can interact with DE sector –Neutrinos and neutrino mass ideal probes –SM particles integral component of DE –m varies over cosmological times, significant changes to neutrino cosmology –Does not require eV mass fields Opportunities for tests on Earth: –short distance modifications of gravity –new matter effects in neutrino oscillations –others, e.g., flavor violation in HE astrophysical neutrino sources (Hung & Pas)